1 Field of the Invention. The field of the invention is protective covers for swimming pools.
2. Description of Related Art. Swimming pool covers are utilized by owners of swimming pools for many reasons such as safety, i.e., to provide a cover for the pool during periods of non-use which will prevent a child who has fallen into the pool from going under water or drowning. In most of these cases, the pool cover is usually supported on the sides of the pool. In addition, there are health reasons for such a protective cover, such as preventing dust or other materials from falling into the water surface and then either being dissolved in the water or sinking to the bottom. Further, the pool covers may be used to keep a pool warmer by effecting retention of heat in the water such as that a wind passing over the water surface will not remove the heat as fast as it would on an unprotected pool. In this regard, pool covers may also be made of dark materials which absorb heat from the sun and transfer that heat into the water and thus provide a means for heating the pool. Lastly, a pool cover may be utilized to prevent the rapid dissipation of chlorine from the water which the operator has added to keep the pool sanitized.
Numerous pool type blankets have been patented by various and different persons, such as the blanket shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,325 to Shuff wherein a buoyant cover floats on the top of the pool with ballast weights added at the edges of the cover to keep it in position upon the pool. In addition, other variations have been disclosed such as the swimming pool cover shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,021 to Rapp wherein a blanket is held in place by tie anchoring members secured to the pool side walls. Pusey, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,721 shows a variation of Shuff's device wherein the plenum between the pool blanket and the water surface may be inflated to cause the blanket to rise substantially above the water surface, sufficient for a person to enter the plenum.
Lof details a swimming pool cover in U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,889 having a rigid framework attached to a plastic cover where the cover floats on the water and the framework is tied to the pool decking at spaced apart positions.
However, none of the prior art illustrates a pool blanket which provides all of the safety, health, and heat retention features and in addition, is constructed such as to be easily and neatly removed and stacked or set off from the pool and then replaced with minimum effort.
Accordingly, it is apparent that there is a need for a flotation pool blanket which provides all of the above features and in addition, provides easy methods of removal of the blanket from the swimming pool and easy methods of replacing the blanket when desired.